Book One – Chapter 12

As for the other guests, they typically either ignored the ruckus or complained about it. Some felt pity for the future that waited on these troublemakers, while others offered support to the dissenters, either to solve the issue with honest intent, or to silence it so they could finish their own meal in peace. In most cases observed by Faroah, these troublemakers were eventually accommodated with the menu, allowing them to choose an alternative meal.

There were also those who began content with the set course but then realised that someone else was having something different — and regardless of how much they enjoyed their own meal or how full they were already, they wanted it, too. Because it could be had. Out of nowhere, these guests would throw down their fork and knife, shove away their unfinished plate, hammer their fists onto the table, and disrupt the entire dining experience for everyone else until they receive this alternative meal as well.

As if the future that waited on all of the world was not yet busy enough, there were times when the collective clamour of dissent reached such a crescendo that the set course for an entire era was cancelled altogether. Instead of adhering to the meticulously prepared course, the future then presented a buffet, a one-for-all allowing everyone to get up and select whatever they wanted. These were rare times; times of great change on a worldly scale.

You would assume that allowing everyone to freely pick and choose as they liked would lead to a satisfactory dining experience, but reality proved otherwise.

When confronted with an array of unlimited choices, there were always those people who jostled and elbowed their way to the front, hastily piling their plates with whatever delicacies lay within arm’s reach. If you ever had the misfortune to encounter such people, you knew that they were rarely content with the etiquette of one plate per person. No, they grabbed as many as they could carry, attempting to amass and hoard enough food for their entire lifetime and ten generations to come, leaving little to nothing for their fellow diners.